


Blend

by sakuratyan



Category: Naruto
Genre: Best Friends, Friendship, Other, Self-Discovery, oc fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-18
Updated: 2012-09-18
Packaged: 2017-11-14 13:43:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/515809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sakuratyan/pseuds/sakuratyan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Before a young kunoichi moved into the Hidden Leaf Village, miss Masako Natsuhoshi was far too antisocial for her own good.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blend

Her antisocial nature made her a mystery to the other kids on the field. While her teacher began picking on students to answer question, Masako’s little hands fumbled; when she was chosen, her voice barely made it past a loud whisper. She blended in the shadows and didn’t have a friend that knew her name. With her classmates and everybody around her, it would always be “Masako who?” or “Mae? I thought her name was longer,” when they heard somebody call her by her nickname.  
Her antisociality didn’t prove to be an issue until she officially entered the academy. While all the other girls were off playing in the grass or braiding flowers in each other’s hair, she always sat under the cherry blossom trees as she wrote in the journal her uncle gave her. As nearly everybody grabbed their best friends’ hands at the start of recess, Masako would always stay behind and walk out last, accompanied by nobody.   
She was an antisocial mess, only to be acknowledged by her teachers and the only family she had left. Her cousin and uncle would ask her, every day, if she made any new friends that day; the answer was always unchanged.  
Finally, she just decided to look them both in the eye and say, “The answer is always the same, and it probably always will be.”  
“‘Probably’ doesn’t mean ‘definitely’,” her cousin corrected.  
“Yeah,” her uncle added, “and there’s some new residents down the block. I heard they have a kid about your age! I bet you can make friends with them.”  
“Yes, but I’m pretty sure you and I both know that it is very unlikely.”  
“Hey,” her uncle called out softly. “Don’t be so negative, Mae. I’m sure there are a lot of kids in school that want to get to know you but are too afraid to.”  
“Yeah right,” Masako scoffs. She shoots her uncle an apologetic look and excuses herself for the day. It had been a long day, after all.   
Even as a young kid, she knew they must have just been giving her the benefit of the doubt. But it just seemed so impossible for her to make friends when everybody had already established their cliques. It couldn’t hurt to try though, she thought. Maybe she could bend the rules of life a little bit just to break out of her shell.  
Her life had become routine. Wake up, brush her hair, eat breakfast, wish a good day to her uncle, and go with her cousin off to the academy. She’d listen through her lessons and take notes, do the physical exercises that were supposed to help them with jutsu techniques, and sit at the back of the classroom. During their breaks, she’d sit alone and daydream about what her stories would look like as a film. And when it came time for the young girls’ kunoichi training, she’d sit under the cherry blossom tree writing stories. After the classes ended for the day, she’d pass through the village to buy a snack before heading home.  
Her life had become routine... until they met.   
Mae performed her usual morning routine straight into the afternoon. And when her kunoichi classes came, she sat down by the same tree and began writing.  
“Summer star, right?”  
Mae turned around in confusion, attempting to find the source of the voice. She closed her notebook as she found a girl she didn’t recognize standing to her left. “Huh?”  
The girl smiled sweetly at her. “Your last name means ‘summer star’.”  
“Uh-huh,” she replied quietly. Her fingers fumbled over her notebook as she slowly turned her head upward.  
It wasn’t until that moment that she actually looked at the girl fully. She had short brown hair in a messy boyish cut and wore a short summer dress with flowery sandals. She seemed to radiate sunshine, and it took all of Mae’s strength to not warp her face in an attempt to figure out who this strange girl was.  
Her hand stuck out awkwardly, but that softened with her warm smile. “I’m Rina, nice to meet you!”  
“My name is Mae.”  
The girl lit up at the introduction. “Oh, I know that, You’re Natsuhoshi Masako!”  
“Hm?” She could only wonder why anybody bothered learning her name. “How do you—“  
Rina cocked her head and giggled. “Oh, sorry, I must’a seemed really weird right there. Hehe, sorry! I saw your name on the class roster this morning and thought it sounded really cool.”  
Masako looked down at her lap, face red. So her name sounded cool, huh? “I don’t think so... but thank you.” She couldn’t possibly believe her name sounded cool, not with the unusual names of some others in her class. One girl was named after beautiful flowers and a boy bore the name of an important family in the village. Some had names relating to animals that their families were known for taking care of. Hell, one kid was even named after a ramen topping. ‘Natsuhoshi Masako’ didn’t stand a chance to the others.   
Rina took a seat next to her, leaning against the tree. “Well, I think so!”  
That was enough to make Mae smile. She’d never been complimented by anybody in her own age group before, and she’d certainly never talked to anybody in her class either. The moment was short, though, as she realized that she still didn’t recognize this girl. “I’m sorry if this comes off as a weird question, but where do you sit in class?”  
“I’m ri—aw, no, I forgot! I didn’t bother remembering because our sensei told me that he’d help me find my seat again tomorrow.”  
“You still don’t know your seat?” How incompetent, she thought to herself. Already half a year in and she didn’t bother remembering where her seat was?  
“Well, yeah!” she said, sighing. “I’m kinda knew to this whole village and I have no idea where anything is. I’m surprised I at least know where my house is.”  
“You’re new to Konoha?”  
Rina nodded her head. “And you’re kinda the only person I’ve talked to all day.”  
In truth, Mae should have suspected. She was a watcher; she knew pretty much everybody in her class. If she wasn’t able to recognize somebody, she should have known that they might have just transferred in.  
The teacher dismissed the class just before anything else could have been said. Rina jumped up, her dress bouncing along with her. She smiled back at the quiet girl. “It was nice talking to you!”  
“Yeah, you too,” Mae reciprocated.  
“I’ll see you tomorrow!”  
“Mm, yeah. See you tomorrow!”  
Masako walked home cheerfully, with a change of rhythm in her steps. She held the strap of her bag tight and smiled shyly at the passers by in the streets. And as she made her way home, she noticed a familiar face down the street.  
She was never one to be the first in her family to jump at the opportunity of meeting new neighbors, so Masako had absolutely no idea who had just moved in down the street from her own house. But when a bright smile beamed over at her and a tiny figure waved, it was no question at all who the new neighbors were. “Hi, Natsuhoshi-san!” she smiled.  
Masako smiled back, elated over the discovery. “Hi, Rina-san!”


End file.
